Comparative Study of Virtual Methods Used for Library Service Delivery among Librarians in Southern Nigeria Private Universities

1. Introduction

Information professionals are trained personnel found in the public and private organisations or institutions who provide solicited and unsolicited information services to their users. There are different services rendered to users by librarians. These services include patron registration, reference services, outreach services, current awareness services, library orientation and library development notification among others (Abubakar, 2011; Ilesanmi, 2013; Mamudu & Otulugbu, 2014). These services can be rendered to users through conventional and virtual methods. Conventional methods are means by which library services are rendered through traditional methods such as face to face, notice board, flyers and display racks among others. Virtual method of service delivery involves the application of information and communication technology (ICT) based system such as telephone/mobile phone calls, text messages, electronic mail, electronic billboard, Teleconferencing, Whatsapp, Facebook and Google to mention but a few as noted by (Omekwu & Eruvme, 2014; Quadri, Quadri, & Oluwasina, 2015; Ilesanmi & Mabawonku, 2020), hence, the need for very good network, devices to work with and steady electricity supply. Jantz (2012) affirmed that innovative library service delivery cannot be overemphasised as the application of ICT has contributed immensely to the achievements and development of novel services and delivery.

Librarians utilise some methods to deliver various services such as electronic document delivery and virtual reference services (Ola, 2010; Ajala & Ojo, 2011) to their users. Study by Ubofoung and Popoola (2014) established that librarians were involved in the business of service delivery to their patrons. Virtual services are rendered to users remotely with the aid of information and communication technology infrastructure and devices which require the supply of steady electricity. Virtual services could be rendered to users irrespective of their location especially where technological infrastructure such as computers, smart/android phones, internet/intranet, wireless/local area network connections are available and accessible to achieve timely services delivery. Scholars like Dahan, Taib, Zainudin, and Ismail (2016) have established the importance of the application of information and communication technology to quality library service delivery thus, ICT serves as the bedrock of innovative and quality library services achievement. Ilesanmi and Ojo (2016) emphasised the need for good and accessible networks and broadband internet connectivity for use among librarians and their students. In the university setting, the university library management as well as librarians are inclusive and are expected to support the teaching, learning and the community service of the institution served.

University libraries are established to complement the goals and aspirations of the institutions in order to achieve the purpose for which university system is being established. University libraries in both developed and developing countries are reneging on their efforts to deliver tandem and prompt services to both the students and staff of their institutions regardless of their location and time. Due to demand for higher education by the potential students and the ability to meet the demand brought about the establishment of private universities in Nigeria. Private universities are universities owned by individuals and religious bodies. Private universities in Nigeria run various programmes that are approved by the National Universities Comission (NUC). Hence, it is mandatory by the NUC that for any university to be established and accredited, there must be standard academic libraries with qualified librarians who will render services to the library users, lecturers, researchers as well as the university community at large. Therefore, private university libraries are expected to develop collections in support of these programmes, organise the knowledge and disseminate to their clientele.

2. Literature Review

3. Methodology

3.2 Population

The population of the study were librarians in all the 45 private universities in Southern Nigeria. They were 181 in number. All the head of libraries were excluded in the study because they were engaged in university administrative duties.

Table 1 presents the names, number of universities covered and librarians involved by the geographical zone of the region studied.

Table 1.

Distribution of private universities and librarians in Southern Nigeria

4. Results

In all, a total of 173 (95.6%) respondents were returned and found usable for the study. The findings of this study are the under listed tables, frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation in order to provide answers to the objectives of the study. Table 2 presents the return rate of the administered questionnaire.

Table 2.

Distribution of private universities and librarians’ response in Southern Nigeria

Table 3 presents the demographic characteristics of the participants. The result from the gender distribution revealed that there was a slight male dominance of librarians with population of 88 (51%) over female librarians population of 85 (49%) in the private universities studied. On marital status, the 77% respondents were married while 2.3% were widows and widowers. According to age distribution, the result shows that majority of the librarians in age bracket 25-35 years dominated the population of 67 (38.7%), closely followed by 65 (37.6%) within the age bracket of 36-45 years while age bracket of 56-65 years i.e 10 (5.8%) constitutes the minority. Regarding the status of the respondents, it was found that many of the respondents were at the status of Assistance Librarian with population of 53 (30.7%), followed closely by 49 (28.3%) in Librarian II status while Deputy University Librarians which constitute the minority were 3 (1.7%).

Table 3.

Demographic information of librarians in Private universities

Concerning the respondents’ designation, the result shows that majority of them were catalougers with 37 (21.4%), followed by circulation librarians with 32 (18.5%) while the least of the respondents were Institutional Repository Librarian with 2 (1.2%). In respect to the qualifications of the respondents, it was recorded that majority of them (129;75%) had Master degree, some of them had Postgraduate Diploma while a few (7;4%) had Doctoral degree. As regards years of working experience, the result revealed that 78 (45%) of the participants have spent at least ten years on the job, followed by some of the librarians who have spent the last five years were 57 (33%) while only 6 (4%) have put in between 31 and 35 years into the service of their institutions.

Table 4 shows the distribution of various library services rendered by librarians in the private universities in the Southern Nigeria. The results revealed that the following services: Library material recommendation, Library registration, Interlibrary loan, Selective dissemination of information, Document delivery, Reference service, Outreach service, Prompt notification of library development, Notification of OPAC additions, Notification of Institutional Repository update, Images/photos service, Library orientation, Library education, Charging and Discharging of library materials and Translation services were rendered to the library users. Majority of the respondents claimed that they participated in the following services; Library orientation 121(70%), closely followed by Reference service 119(69%), followed by Library material recommendation 64%, Selective dissemination of information 64%, while the minority 9% were involved in translation services.

Table 4.

Types of library services delivered by librarians in Private universities in Southern Nigeria

Table 5 provides answer to objective two that sought to determine the frequency at which librarians rendered various library services. The result of the findings shows that library services were rendered by the respondents on daily, weekly, and monthly basis while some of the participants were not involved in the delivery of certain library services. High number of the respondents claimed that they rendered the following services on daily basis; 117 (67.6%): Charging and Discharging of library materials, respondents were 111 (64.2%): Reference service and the respondents for Library registration service were 105 (60.7%). Notification of Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) additions service was claimed by 60 (34.7%) of the librarians, Outreach and Image/Photos services were rendered by 55 (31.8%) participants on weekly basis. Sixty-two (35.8%) of the librarians admitted that they were involved in the delivery of library orientation service to their users on monthly basis while 59 (34.1%) of the respondents had never participated in Translation services.

Table 5.

Frequency of library services delivered by librarians in Private universities in Southern Nigeria

The results on Table 6 captured the findings on the virtual mode by which the librarians deliver their services to their users. The Table presented the virtual mode of service delivery under two categories; Electronic and social media. Under Electronic media, it was discovered that Library website, E-mail and Telephone calls were highly used by the respondents to disseminate various library services. The results on Table 6 shows that electronic media such as Library website was highly used by the respondents to deliver library services like Notification of new library arrival was 156 (90.2%), Library education was 137(79.2%) and Prompt notification of library development was 127 (73.4%); E-mail was also highly used for Document delivery was 132 (73.4%), Reference services was 130 (75.1%); while the least used electronic media was Telephone call. From the social media mode of service delivery by the respondents, it was reported that Whatsapp and Facebook were used at moderate level to deliver services to their users. Social Media platforms like Whatsapp was used for Reference service 62 (35.8%), Selective dissemination of information was 57 (32.9%) and Facebook for Notification of new library arrival was 59 (34.1 %) and Library education was 55 (31.8%) while Skype and Flickr were applied to service delivery by the respondents at low level. The results on Table 6 have established that the respondents from the private university libraries studied used more of Electronic media than social media for library service delivery.

Table 6.

Distribution by virtual mode of service delivery in Private universities in Southern Nigeria

5. Discussions of Findings

The results of this study are presented below according to the objectives of the study.

6. Conclusion

The study concluded that librarians in private universities in Nigeria rendered various library services to their users with high use of electronic media and moderate use of social media for service delivery. Though electronic media was predominantly used than social media for service delivery among the librarians. The application of virtual methods such as email, phone calls, website, Whatsapp and Facebook among others for service delivery aided the promptness of service delivery among librarians in private universities in Nigeria. Various library services are now promptly delivered to the library users at their comfort zone for their optimal utilisation.

7. Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were proffered:

• Librarians should participate in the delivery of various library services using more ∙ virtual methods of communication.

• Librarians should acquire more electronic communication skills to enable them keep pace with evolving demand on the profession.

• Librarians should be trained especially on emerging technology deployment to facilitate prompt library service delivery.

• Library management should make ICT infrastructure available and accessible which would enhance effective service delivery.

• This study is limited to private universities in Nigeria, as such, it could be replicated in other academic libraries globally.

References

• Adams, J. A., & Bonk, S. C. (1995). Electronic information and resources: use by university faculty and faculty preferences for related library services. College and Research Libraries, 56(2), 119-131. DOI: 10.5860/crl_56_02_119 [https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_56_02_119]
• Aharony, N., & Bronstein, J. (2014). Academic Librarians’ perceptions on information literacy: the Israeli perspective. Libraries and the Academy, 14(1), 103-119. [https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2013.0040]
• Ajala, E B., & Ojo, R. A. (2011). Electronic document delivery: The Ibadan University Library experience. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery and Electronic Reserve, 21(4), 199-205. [https://doi.org/10.1080/1072303X.2011.602607]
• Akporhonor, B. A., & Endouware, C. B. (2016). Challenges of using web 2.0 tools among University Librarians in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The Information Technologist, 13(1), 153-161.
• Alabi, A. O., Nduka, S. C., & Olatise, O. M. (2011). Developing strategies towards information service delivery (ISD) in academic libraries in South-west Nigeria. National Library Association’s 49th National Conference and Annual General Meeting on information for all: strategies for national development. L. O. Aina Ed. Emmanus house complex, Author Eze Avenue, Awka, Anambra State. 10-15 July. 119-234.
• Baro, E. E., Idiodi, E. O., & Godfrey, V. Z. (2013). Awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in university libraries in Nigeria. OCLC Systems and Services, 29(3), 170-188. DOI: 10.1108/OCLC-12-2012-0042 [https://doi.org/10.1108/OCLC-12-2012-0042]
• Bhardwaj, R. K. (2014). Use of social networking sites by LIS professionals in higher education institutions in India: a study. The Reference Librarian, 55(1), 74-88. [https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2014.855604]
• Cohen, H. (2011). Social media definitions. Retrieved from http://heidicohen.com/social-media-definition/
• Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1984). Information richness: a new approach to managerial behaviour and organisational design. Research in organisation behaviour. L. L. Cummings and B. M. Staw Eds. Homewood, IL: JAI Press. 191-233. [https://doi.org/10.21236/ADA128980]
• Dahan, S. M., Taib, M. Y., Zainudin, N. M., & Ismail, F. (2016). Surveying users’ perception of academic library services quality: case study in university Malaysia Pahang (UMP) library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(1), 38-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2015.10.006 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2015.10.006]
• Ezeani, C. N. (2011). Network literacy skills of academic librarians for effective service delivery: the case of University of Nigeria Library System. Library Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved from digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/648/
• Ilesanmi, T. C. (2013). Roles of the librarian in a research library in the digital era: challenges and the way forward. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 19(1), 5-14. [https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2012.740437]
• Ilesanmi, T. C., & Mabawonku, I. M. (2020). Use of social media space for library service delivery: evidence from Southern Nigeria universities. Library Philosophy and Practice, Retrieved from https://media.proquest.com/media/hms/PFT/1/ABC9F?_s=N2nwUyPPeyHP8gC3mSLZ%2BrpdAIQ%3D
• Ilesanmi, T. C., & Ojo, R. A. (2016). Awareness of Electronic Resources Databases and Assessment of Information Technology (IT) Facilities Used by Distance Learners at the Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Benue Journal of Library Management and Information Science, 6(2), 1-14.
• Jaiyeoba, A. O., & Salami, S. O. (2006). Research designs. Research methods in education. G. O. Alegbeleye, I. Mabawonku, and M. Fabunmi Eds. Ibadan: Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, 112-137.
• Jantz, R. C. (2012). Innovation in academic libraries: an analysis of university librarians’ perspectives. Library and Information Science Research, 34(1), 3-12. Rutgers University. DOI: 10.7282/T3M90714. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2011.07.008]
• Kabir, S. M., & Efe, O. E. (2022). Social media use and service delivery by professionals in Ahmadu Bello University Library, Zaria. Journal of Information Management, 9(1), 83-91. [https://doi.org/10.5958/2348-1773.2022.00008.X]
• Khasheli, M., & Siddiqui, R. P. (2022). Government college librarian’s use of social media for professional development in Sindh, Pakistan. International Journal of Librarianship, 7(2), 88-105. [https://doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2022.vol7.2.245]
• Mabawonku, I. M. (2017). From tablet to tablet: information, media and technology acceptance. An inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Ibadan on Apr. 20, 2017. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. 50.
• Madhusudhan, M., & Nagabhushanam, V. (2012). Use of web-based library services in select university libraries in India: a study. International Journal of Library and Information Studies, 2(1), 1-20.
• Mamudu, P. A., & Otulugbu, D. (2014). Librarians as information miners: the case of Nigeria. Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 5(2), 57-68.
• Mbofung, U. (2014). Self-management and information services delivery of library and information science professionals in federal universities in Nigeria. Library Management, 35(6/7), 454-468. [https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-08-2013-0065]
• Mbofung, U., & Popoola, S. O. (2014). Legal and ethical issues of information service delivery and library and information science professionals in university libraries in Nigeria. Library Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1183
• Monagle, H., & Finnegan, A. (2018). Use of social by new library professionals: outcomes from a UK survey. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(4), 435-467. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000616653648]
• Nnadozie, C. O. (2016). Interaction between librarians ICT skills and faculty members’ satisfaction with information delivery in university libraries. Middlebelt Journal of Library and Information Science, 14, 32-46.
• Ola, C. O. (2010). Reference service delivery system in West Africa: limitations and prospects as seen from Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Internet Reference Quarterly, 15, 97-106. [https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301003788448]
• Omekwu, C. O., & Eruvme, U. (2014). Application of information and communication technology (ICT) in Delta State Polytechnic Libraries, Nigeria. Journal of Applied Information Science and Technology, 7(1), 46-60.
• Opeke, R. O., & Onuoha, U. D. (2013). Librarians’ use of social media networks in Nigeria. Pacific North-West Library Association Quarterly PNLAQ, 77(2), 95-103.
• Park, N. Chung, J. E., & Lee, S. (2012). Explaining the use of text based communication media: an examination of three theories of media use. Cyberpsychology Behaviour and Social Networking, 15(7), 357-363. [https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0121]
• Quadri, G. O., & Idowu, O. A. (2016). Social media use for information dissemination in three federal university libraries in Southwest Nigeria. Journal of Library and Information Services in Distance Learning, 10(1/2), 30-40. DOI: 10.1080/1533290X.2016.1156597 [https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2016.1156597]
• Quadri, M. O., Quadri, G. O., & Oluwasina, O. O. (2015). Information and communication technology (ICT) application in library services: a comparative study of two Nigerian universities. Journal of Applied Information Science and Technology, 8(2), 35-41.
• Salt, R. (2004). Infoservices: a multi-channel, multi-tier model for information service delivery. Proceedings of IATUL Conferences. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iatul/2004/papers/32, .
• Singha, S. C., & Sarmah, M. (2015). Web 2.0 tools in enhancing the best practices of user services in academic libraries: a comparative study of central university libraries in Assam State. International Journal of Advanced Library and Information Science, 3, 249-260. [https://doi.org/10.23953/cloud.ijalis.253]
• Smeaton, K., & Davis, K. (2014). Using social media to create a participatory library service: an Australian study. Library and Information Research, 38, 54-76. [https://doi.org/10.29173/lirg593]
• Tyagi, S. (2012). Use of web 2.0 technology by library professionals: study of selected engineering colleges in western Uttar Pradesh. DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, 32, 439-445. [https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.5.2655]
• Weerasinghe, S., & Hindagolla, B. M. M. C. B. (2018). Use of Social Network Sites (SNS) by library academics in the workplace: perspectives of university librarians in Sri Lanka. Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka, 21(2), 21-43. [https://doi.org/10.4038/jula.v21i2.7916]
• Yu-Feng, L., & Yang-Siang, S. (2010). Using RSS to support mobile learning based on media richness theory. Computers and Education, 55(2), 723-732. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.005]